


when green is all there is to be

by anotherbuskitten



Category: Wolverine And The X-Men (Cartoon), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Child Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 16:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1058825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherbuskitten/pseuds/anotherbuskitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>--why wonder, why wonder, I'm green and that's all I'll ever be</p>
            </blockquote>





	when green is all there is to be

**Author's Note:**

> Partially inspired by this: http://dendraica.deviantart.com/art/Changeling-156215545

When he was younger and his skin had just started to turn green he had tried cutting it off. He had rarely been ill in the past and so he had little experience with medical procedure.

Anyway it had to work.

As it was he could mostly hide the colour under long sleeves, which while uncomfortable in the warm weather, was much better than anyone seeing. When the green became stronger; thicker and deeper, he found felt pens the same colour as everyone else’s skin and scribbled all over his arms.

When the green first appeared on his face he freaked and refused to come out of his bedroom for two days. Until the rain started pouring and he felt like he was drowning in the stuffiness of the house.

That was when his parents first saw.

His mother screamed and called the hospital. His father just stared for a long minute and then left.

The doctor could do nothing.

Mortimer cried himself to sleep that night.

* * *

The tongue arrived three years later. By then he had been taken out of school; everyone was told he had contracted a long-lasting contagious disease. No one visited; he had never had any friends close enough to care.

He was kept mostly in isolation, the sickness providing a suitable alibi as to why no one, not even his parents, saw him.

He didn’t need to hide the tongue from them when they never checked up on him.

Sometimes he still skimmed the knife down his skin to try and be normal again.

* * *

By the time he was sixteen he hadn’t been outside the house in six years and he only ever opened the window when it rained.

Sometimes when it rained so hard no one could see three inches past their noses he even considered going outside. But there was still the chance that if he listened really closely and did everything he was told his parents would love him again.

 

The fire happened without warning.

His parents were out at the time, which was a blessing. But locked in his room, with the flames already creeping under the door, he could only focus on smashing the window and getting out rather than how lucky his family was.

When he awoke, he was farther away from his hometown than he had ever been before, and he had no recollection of how he got there.

He knew his parents would be missing him, and he knew he owed them a _lot_ but he just couldn’t bring himself to go home and back to being stuck inside all day and night.

The freedom Mortimer had first felt when the rain started falling sealed his decision. No way in _hell_ was he giving this up.

* * *

The first time he meets another mutant he has been living on the streets for around a year and he’s getting better at surviving. He knows that most of the homeless population thinks he’s weird but harmless and he likes to keep it that way. He doesn’t want anyone getting interested.

Todd meets Freddy Dukes outside a McDonalds; he hasn’t eaten for a couple of days and the smells here can almost fool him into thinking he’s eating for real.

Even at thirteen Freddy’s huge; bigger than anyone Todd’s ever seen. He isn’t disgusted by the weight like some of the other passers-by – he has the tongue of a _toad_ , for goodness sake; it takes a lot to make him feel ill these days.

He pities him a little; he doesn’t seem to be much better off than Todd himself but it’s easier to scrounge if you’re skinny and underweight. It’s easier to eat if you aren’t averse to flies and grubs. With this in mind he heads over and offers half his stale burger to him; he knows it isn’t a wise move, he knows that he’ll regret it later and he knows that he will likely get no gratitude from it.

To his surprise though Freddy does show thanks, he isn’t particularly eloquent about it but Todd knows enough to be able to read his face at the offer.

Neither of them knows the other is a mutant of course, not yet anyway. They don’t even know that mutants are a thing yet they just know that they are freaks.

Freddy doesn’t have an obvious mutation; the weight of course but that can be passed off as obesity and as long as Todd doesn’t open his mouth they can, well not blend in, but pass on by.

They start stealing; Freddy distracts people or obscures the view while Todd uses his tongue to grab a hold of the items they desire. Most of the time it’s packaged food as Freddy can’t eat Todd’s slime, and they don’t risk taking money directly.

It turns out that Freddy is good with numbers, so they start peddling on the side. All in all they’re doing quite well when their luck shifts.

Magnus is tall, white-haired and the most intimidating person Todd has ever seen. Neither of them have enough courage to say no, nor do they really want to.

It was a slight misconception as they had believed at the start that it would be a more Xavier like situation but neither of them really cares at the time. Becoming villains doesn’t change too much and they both enjoy the feeling of being wanted.

* * *

The first big shock comes when they go up against the X-Men for the first time. They lose, of course, a clear sign of things to come.

They learn about mutants and they meet others; Domino and Avalanche, Pietro and Wanda. They never get to meet Lorna although they hear enough about her from the differing views of Magnus and Pietro.

Mostly Todd stays close to Fred and tries to do his best. It gets harder the higher they rise; he isn’t a criminal mastermind and no matter how hard he tries he’s still at the bottom of the heap. Eventually even Fred starts getting tired of him.

One day, almost overnight, he becomes Toad and while of course it’s nice to get a code name [he’s the only one without at the moment] he sort of feels like it’s just one more taunt.

Then Rogue changes sides and is automatically higher placed than him, never mind that she just left her team, never mind that he has never _once_ thought about leaving this team no matter how cruel to him they were, never mind that he was one of the first to follow Magneto; even before he was Magneto.

He hears Dom’s crack about sticking with their people.

It stings, of course, just like all the others always do, but that’s a small price to pay for a real family.

Right?


End file.
